Tensions between Lithuania and Belarus are growing after weather balloon activity in the vicinity of Lithuania’s Vilnius Airport forced aviation authorities to restrict airspace and halt air traffic for the sixth time in a month.
Air operations around the Lithuanian capital came to a standstill on 30 October 2025, for two and a half hours between 8:10 pm and 10:43 pm, when, “according to preliminary information, the decision to restrict the airspace was made due to a balloon (or balloons) flying in the direction of Vilnius Airport,” officials said in a statement on Thursday.
Eight of the balloons were spotted, according to local media, and two flights due to land at Vilnius were forced to return to their departure points.
Lithuania's Vilnius Airport announced that its airspace had reopened after a closure in the early hours of Sunday,
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) October 5, 2025
More than 20 balloons used to smuggle counterfeit cigarettes from Belarus to Lithuania disrupted operations at Vilnius airport overnight and affected around 30… pic.twitter.com/U7KgqrmiUf
The repeated balloon activity has been blamed both on cigarette smugglers attempting to bring contraband over the frontier with Belarus amid a ban on border crossings and on the failure of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to prevent such activity. But the balloons are not the only problem. Lithuania’s Ministry for Defence said on Monday that a Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker from neighbouring Kaliningrad (Russia) had briefly entered Lithuanian airspace. A Russian diplomat was summoned as a result, even though Russian authorities denied the incursion had occurred.
Now, in an escalation, the border is set to remain closed until the end of November, and Lithuania has said it will begin shooting down any balloons intruding into its airspace. “Today we have decided to take the strictest measures; there is no other way,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said on Monday. In addition, she said the government would also consider invoking NATO’s Article 4, which allows any member to call for consultations with allies if their territory, political independence, or security is threatened, triggering a North Atlantic Council meeting.
❗️🇱🇹Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė stated that the border with 🇧🇾Belarus will remain closed, and any balloons violating Lithuanian airspace will be shot down! pic.twitter.com/wC3xsFnItz
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) October 29, 2025
While the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa have both heavily criticised Belarus for the provocations, which they have dubbed a “hybrid threat,” Lukashenko has dismissed the Lithuanian border closure as a “scam,” “absurd,” and “a crazy gamble.”
However, he is well-known to be an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose drones have made repeated incursions into European Polish airspace. The pair met in September 2025 for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation discussions in Beijing, where it was noted that Belarus is Russia’s fourth-largest trading partner, with a trading value in excess of $50 billion.
